Chapter 43: Can This Popularity Be Borrowed?

Lu Zhou turned on his computer, uploaded the video and audio file of "First Love" onto DouLe, and joined the "DouLe Music Creation Billion Yuan Reward Program." Then, he set his phone aside and went to blow-dry his hair.

Six minutes later, his hair was dry. He checked the statistics on DouLe: the video had 689 views, 17 likes, 1 comment, and no favorites.

He opened the comment section to take a look—

[Aren’t you a photographer? Did I walk onto the wrong set?]

This was obviously a user from Ye Fangfei’s followers, since her video description had mentioned a "temporary photographer."

Given the half-dead state of his account, getting this many views within minutes was actually pretty optimistic.

He didn’t expect this wave of borrowed attention to retain many followers—he just hoped it would give his video a strong initial boost.

Whatever the outcome, Lu Zhou was confident. Even if this didn’t take off, he had other promotion plans lined up.

Success in music is never instantaneous; publicity always takes time.

No matter how good a song is, very few go viral overnight—unless, of course, you’re a famous artist backed by popularity and capital.

For a new artist with no backing, it’s best to patiently let time be the judge.

Lu Zhou forwarded the video to the family group chat and sent a playful emoji.

[Your son wrote a song himself, care to give it a listen? @PondMaster @MadamPondMaster]

At this hour, his parents were usually relaxing at home, half-watching dramas and half-playing on their phones.

Sure enough, within minutes, Lu Zhou was bombarded with messages in the group.

Madam PondMaster: [No wonder you’re my son! You’ve really made something of yourself—writing your own songs now! And you look so handsome playing the violin in the video! I’m glad I sent you to learn it when you were little; it’s finally come in handy.]

PondMaster: [Liked, favorited, commented, and shared—full support!]

PondMaster: [Just shared it in the family group, got them all to help boost the rankings.]

PondMaster: [Hope your song does really well this time!]

Madam PondMaster: [I think this song is pretty good, I actually like it.]

Madam PondMaster: [The songs you released when you debuted weren’t to my taste.]

Madam PondMaster: [I’ll go to the temple tomorrow and pray for you.]

PondMaster: [Since you released a new song, you’ll need to spend some money on promotion, right?]

PondMaster: [@LittleZhou, I just transferred you twenty thousand, use it as you need.]

Madam PondMaster: [@LittleZhou, I just listened to your song carefully. Did you write the lyrics yourself too?]

Madam PondMaster: [Is this a song for your ex-girlfriend?]

Madam PondMaster: [How’s that show you’ve been on lately? You won’t talk to me about it. How is your ex treating you there? Are you still thinking about her?]

Madam PondMaster: [What about the other girls?]

Madam PondMaster: [Is there anyone suitable?]

...

The conversation soon drifted off topic, making Lu Zhou laugh helplessly. By the time he’d replied to each message, half an hour had passed.

After finishing the chat with his parents, he checked his DouLe video stats again.

The video now had 4,254 views, 128 likes, 13 comments, 6 shares, and 10 favorites.

The comment section—

[Scared me for a second—thought all photographers these days could sing like that. Looked up and realized you’re a certified musician. My mistake.]

[The violin part is really unique.]

[Could this be a newcomer Ye Fangfei’s company is promoting?]

[Great song, rooting for you!]

...

The comments were starting to turn positive.

Staring at the numbers would only increase his anxiety, so Lu Zhou exited DouLe.

When he left his room, he found the downstairs lively—everyone else was playing the "Mystery Guest" game in the living room.

They’d split into two teams: girls versus boys.

The KTV system was blasting music. Each of the three girls took a microphone and sang, while the boys had to guess which one was lip-syncing.

Lu Zhou watched for a while, and just by listening to the sound system, he already had an answer in mind.

When the singing ended, it was time for the boys to guess.

"Jia Yan is probably the one lip-syncing—her mouth barely moved," Wen Yiming mused.

"I think it’s Jia Jia. She put way too much effort into her expressions, like she’s trying to cover something up," Xu Junze disagreed.

Zhang Chen chimed in, "Jia Jia is definitely suspicious..."

The girls burst into laughter.

"Unify your answer, okay? If you lose this round, you won’t be able to catch up," Li Jiayan reminded with a grin.

Xu Junze, conflicted, turned to Lu Zhou for help. "What do you think?"

Lu Zhou replied, "Yao Yao."

Now there was yet another answer, making the decision even harder.

After some debate, the guys settled on "Qi Jiajia"—their reasoning: she was overacting.

The girls doubled over with laughter. "You lost!"

"No way, was it really Jia Yan?" Wen Yiming’s eyes widened.

"Nope! The one lip-syncing was Yao Yao!" Li Jiayan announced with a laugh.

Xu Junze slapped his thigh in regret. "Lu Zhou was right! Should’ve trusted him."

Chu Yao flashed a victory sign, triumphant. "You’ve lost three rounds—three to two, the girls win. Tomorrow’s breakfast is on you guys!"

Zhang Chen shrugged, unfazed. "A deal’s a deal. I’ll go buy breakfast in the morning."

"No buying! That’s too insincere—you have to make it yourselves!" Li Jiayan insisted.

Zhang Chen rubbed his forehead, amused and a bit troubled. "My cooking skills... If you don’t mind the quality, I’ll do it."

Chu Yao gave her a wry smile.

Tired of the game, they stopped.

Qi Jiajia, bored, sprawled on the sofa scrolling DouLe videos. Suddenly, she came across the short video Ye Fangfei posted today.

In the video, Ye Fangfei was nothing like her usual self—her goofy, playful side made Qi Jiajia burst out laughing.

"Hey! Look what I just found!"

She turned her phone so everyone could see.

Soon, they were all laughing along with Ye Fangfei’s antics.

"I never realized Fangfei could be so fun. She never shows this side," Wen Yiming said with a smile.

Zhang Chen pursed his lips, stole a glance at Lu Zhou, then fell silent.

"Huh?" Staring at the video, Chu Yao suddenly noticed something new. She read out Ye Fangfei’s video caption: "The amateur photographer I grabbed at the last minute, @Lu Zhou, said my dancing was too stiff, so I ended up like this..."

That line instantly turned every gaze in the room to Lu Zhou.

"Lu Zhou? So you filmed Fangfei’s video?" Chu Yao asked curiously.

Suddenly the center of attention, Lu Zhou paused, then nodded. "Yeah, I happened to run into her and helped out."

He just happened upon her, helped out, and then Ye Fangfei tagged his DouLe account in her video? Was that really plausible?

How did Ye Fangfei even know the DouLe handle of a washed-up artist like him?

When did they get close enough to interact so openly on social media?

The more everyone thought about it, the more they realized there was more to the story.

In the living room, the way everyone looked at Lu Zhou subtly changed.

At that moment, Qi Jiajia, curious, clicked into Lu Zhou’s DouLe profile, only to find he’d posted just one video.

She instinctively tapped on the sole video, and in the next moment, music filled the living room.